About

Sir James MacMillan

Sir James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers and is also internationally active as a conductor. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended with influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian and Eastern European music.

Read more

MacMillan first became internationally recognised after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world. His major works include percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which has received close to 500 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and four symphonies. Recent major works include his Percussion Concerto No.2 for Colin Currie, co-commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Edinburgh International Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and, most recently, Symphony No.4, premiered by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Runnicles, which receives its US premiere this season by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck.

MacMillan enjoys a flourishing career as conductor of his own music alongside a range of contemporary and standard repertoire, praised for the composer’s insight he brings to each score. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie until 2013 and was Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2000-09; he has conducted orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra among others. MacMillan was Composer in Residence at the 2012 Grafenegg Festival and a London Symphony Orchestra Portrait Artist in the 2009/10 season.

Highlights of the 2016/17 season include the world premieres of his Stabat Mater with the Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia, his Trombone Concerto with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and a new Horn Concerto arrangement. MacMillan will be the focus of a Glasgow-wide celebration of his music in March 2017 and as part of this he will conduct the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, who join the MacMillan festival alongside the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, BBC Radio 3 and the Nash Ensemble. Elsewhere this season MacMillan conducts the English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Flemish Philharmonic and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

In October 2014 MacMillan founded his music festival, The Cumnock Tryst, which takes place annually in his native Ayrshire. MacMillan was awarded a CBE in 2004 and a Knighthood in 2015.

MacMillan has directed many of his own works on disc for Chandos, BIS and BMG, most recently a series on Challenge Records including MacMillan’s violin concerto A Deep but Dazzling Darkness and percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel with Colin Currie and the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie. His latest release on Harmonia Mundi with Britten Sinfonia included his Oboe Concerto and won the 2016 BBC Music Magazine Award.

The works of Sir James MacMillan are published by Boosey & Hawkes.

2016/17 season / 511 words. Not to be altered without permission.

Performances

View more

Close

Loading performances...

Conducting highlights & programmes

James MacMillan was Composer-Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2000-2009 and of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonie from 2009-2013. In Spring 2014 MacMillan conducted three projects with the BBC Scottish Symphony including a the orchestra’s first tour to India. Highlights of the current season include a new production of his 1990 opera Ines de Castro with Scottish opera, Composer in Residence with the Sao Paulo Symphony where he conducts a choral programme, return conducting engagements with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and debuts with Bergen Philharmonic among others. In recent seasons he has conducted orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and New Zealand Symphony.

James MacMillan is one of today’s most performed composers, with a rich catalogue of orchestral and choral music performed by leadings orchestras around the world. Recent years have brought a successful sequence of concertos by MacMillan: for violinist Vadim Repin, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (his third piano concerto), oboist Nicholas Daniel, violist Lawrence Power and percussionist Colin Currie (his second percussion concerto). 2014 saw MacMillan launching Cumnock Tryst, a new music festival in his home town of Cumnock, Ayrshire.

A towering performance by the BBC Philharmonic under the composer James MacMillan. He is proving a conductor of daunting ability.

Sunday Times

MacMillan conducted his own music that was ceaselessly inventive, evocative and penetrating...His estimable mastery of orchestral timbre and effect was evident throughout.

New York Times

How do we characterise the phenomenal concert given on Saturday night by the BBC SSO, with a string of premieres, all conducted by the man himself? The night featured music that was beguiling, intriguing, poignant, hilarious, electrifyingly exciting, challenging and, for those who know a little about MacMillan's music, comprehensively revelatory.